Friendly reminder: the Lightning are doing all this without the services of the reigning Norris Trophy winner. There's another gear or two above this.

I doubt the NHL will do anything about it, but the cowardly attack by Milan Lucic on a rookie half his size has no place in the game. Pure scumbag sore loser garbage.

The Lightning sit at 23 points through 15 games. By my count they need just 1 point in the next 5 games to seal playoff pace through two 10-game segments of the season, and just 4 points in those 5 games to seal a successful segment #2 of the campaign (12 in 10). So, there's opportunity to run up some insurance points again, for sure.

Mathieu Joseph was -1 with 2 hits in 8:22. He was the recipient of the aforementioned Milan Lucic assault. Brave man to pick on a skinny rookie that's only 2/3 his size.

Louis Domingue allowed 3 goals on 25 shots for the win. After getting shelled in Arizona and then quickly falling behind a couple of goals in this one, Domingue had to show some mental toughness under adversity. He, for the most part, sucked it up and pulled through.

Brayden Point was the game's first star after being bloodied taking one to the face, scoring the tying goal, and then less than a minute of running time later setting up the OT winner with some bravery taking it to the net. He and McDonagh both played really good games, and McDonagh is pulling off the near impossible task of filling Victor Hedman's shoes and doing it in style while the big man is out.

This game, in some ways, a bit like the contest last night in Montreal. The team came out and didn't have their A game and fell behind the eight ball as the penalty kill has started to see a bit of a market correction in recent play. They then asserted their dominance and slowly set about the task of trying to get some goals past Craig Anderson. Unfortunately, after tying the game and as the game got chippy, a moment of indiscipline led to a quick Ottawa goal and it looked like the Lightning's comeback bid would fall short. That's where McDonagh and Point's heroics kicked in. All in all, the Lightning outshot Ottawa 45-25, and those possession numbers are the ones that really get me most excited about the way the team's been playing lately.

Mathieu Joseph had his first NHL goal and was +1 with 1 shot, 3 hits, and 2 blocked shots in 12:20. Now that he's got one, we'll see if it's floodgates for the young speedster.

Anthony Cirelli was +1 with a helper, 4 shots, 1 hit, and 2 blocked shots in 13:23. He was also 73% on 11 draws.

Adam Erne had a helper and was +1 with 2 penalty minutes, 1 shot, and 1 blocked shot in 13:16. In general, you saw young guys stepping up at the tail end of a road back-to-back and providing some spark and secondary scoring when the team really needed it.

Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed just 1 goal on 35 shots for the victory. Really played solid at several moments of the game, most notably the first half of the First Period and the Second Period, when the team in front of him looked a little disinterested.

Tonight was a pretty stark illustration of the talent gap between these two teams. Montreal played really hard tonight for sixty minutes and still got smoked by a Lightning club that, frankly, took half the game off. The First Period was a case study in what good teams can do to frustrate the efforts of upstart underdogs. The Lightning came out really flat and quickly were down 1-0 and getting dominated until Nicolas Deslauriers took an ill-advised boarding call. Stamkos scored just after the end of the expiration of that PP, as good teams do when you give them opportunities, and all of Montreal's hard work went squandered. Vasilevskiy played well in a lax Second Period to preserve the 2-1 lead the Lightning carried out of the opening frame, and then the Lightning decided to finish off the Habs and did so pretty clinically in the Third Period. #Habsband play Taps.

The better team was in the blue jerseys tonight. Even with Hedman out of the lineup the Lightning outshot/outpossessed Nashville by a 43-24 margin. But, tonight was another reminder that details matter against good teams and when they've got a goaltender playing well they only need you to make a handful of mistakes to steal a win. In that respect, although I don't think the intensity was quite to a playoff level, this was kind of like a low scoring, high stakes playoff game. Late in the First Period, all it took was for Steven Stamkos to switch off mentally for a second in defensive zone coverage and, boom, there's the GWG. So, I'd say the coaching staff got a handful of things to really harp on in video session, but the overall effort was good and the team shouldn't get too down on themselves.

Joseph was -1 with 4 shots and 3 hits in 13:39. He set up the only Lightning goal with some tenacious forechecking and had a couple of good chances on his own. His line was one of the two lines that was really playing extra well tonight.

Slater Koekkoek had a goal and 3 shots in 17:21. He's rounding into form nicely now that the rust has fallen off.

Anthony Cirelli had a helper, 2 hits, 1 blocked shot, and was 90% on 10 draws in 13:50. As noted, his line played really well tonight.